


Truth Be Told

by LyricalTwilight



Series: Twilight Missing Moments [4]
Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Family Drama, Gap Filler, Midnight Sun, One Shot, Romance, The Cullens - Freeform, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25869436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyricalTwilight/pseuds/LyricalTwilight
Summary: After the disastrous events in Phoenix, Emmett returns home to Forks and reunites with Rosalie. Their hearts and bodies may align perfectly, but their opinions about Bella Swan are something else entirely.
Relationships: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale
Series: Twilight Missing Moments [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1862119
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	Truth Be Told

**Author's Note:**

> *Midnight Sun spoilers*
> 
> Okay, I needed to get this out of my head before I could continue my other stories. lol It was nagging at me. I felt Rosalie didn't get a just representation in Midnight Sun at the end, even though she and Edward had those talks that brought more of their relationship to life.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy the read!

**.:Truth Be Told:.**

* * *

It was raining when Emmett's plane finally hit the tarmac in Seattle. It had been a better flight than the one to Phoenix, certainly; yet, more than once he found himself staring at the back of the seat in front of him for too long, unmoving. Even when he tried to refocus, blinking away the world behind his eyelids, all he saw was Rosalie.

His strong, fiery mate had a tendency to hold grudges. Emmett never understood the purpose of that. He lived for the present. Anything else was either behind them or yet to happen, so why worry about it? It seemed a good way to upset yourself, which his beautiful wife was prone to achieve. He would help her through it, of course, if that was what she wanted from him. Sometimes she did prefer to sort it out alone. However, either way, the least Emmett could do was offer his two cents, smooth over the rougher edges in Rosalie's fierce, fixated thoughts. He knew Edward's enigma-of-a-human a little better now, saw how she complemented their brother, put him in his place or calmed him down, how she truly seemed to care about him as much as he cared for her. And that was what mattered, right?

Emmett thought so.

He hoped that eventually, Rosalie would think so, too.

**OoOoOoO**

Rosalie tapped her toes against the cool dirt. She had arrived at SeaTac forty minutes too early, eager, impatient. Now, the sun was on its last dregs of descent, and Emmett's plane should have landed fifteen minutes ago. She yearned to see his handsome face, bright and unharmed. All this time she had been worried about him, unsure what was happening, whether or not they caught up with the tracker, and at what cost. She and Esme left in the shadows of Charlie Swan's house on the lookout for the slippery redhead that seemed unlikely to show up, all the while having ample time to imagine the worst.

_"It will be alright, Rose,"_ Esme had told her multiple times. _"Alice will see anything."_

_Right_ , Rosalie had thought. _Like that way of thinking hadn't backfired - first in the clearing, and then in luring the tracker away from Phoenix._

Of course, now, the tracker was apparently dead? And they hadn't bothered to call either one of them? Not even Esme who, despite her assurances to Rosalie, was just as anxious being separated from her family. The audacity Alice had to simply call Rosalie up and demand things of her. She already put Emmett's life on the line, not to mention the rest of her family's - wasn't that enough for Bella Swan?

**OoOoOoO**

Emmett caught a cab, dropping him off at a park just a couple miles outside of the airport, paying the driver extra for the trouble, feeling guilty the man could have picked up a longer shift if not for him. Across the street, was the tow truck with Bella's decrepit, decaying truck belted down on it. Rosalie was around here somewhere. As soon as the cab driver was out of view, Emmett dashed for it. Rosalie's scent, spicy and floral, reached his nose and he inhaled more instinctively, aching to see her, to touch her. He knew she needed him home.

Rosalie was too agitated to wait in the cabin of the tow truck she had rented. She had walked the small slope of a hill that overlooked the 405 and 5 freeways. Hidden among the park trees, she dispassionately watched the traffic. The fact Emmett would be returning to Phoenix was not helpful in her outlook on the situation. She wanted this whole mess over with.

Rosalie stilled. A crunch of leaves. A snapping twig. The movements too fast for anything mortal.

Emmett rounded a curve of ferns and across a thin, worn trail, and he saw her. Rosalie was stood at the point of a rocky slope, framed by thin pines. She was a glowing silhouette against the last rays of light piercing through the thin layer of clouds above them. Emmett pushed his legs faster. Rosalie turned a second later, his fast, heavy footsteps finally reaching her senses. The wind fanned her hair to the side like a golden cape.

_God, she was gorgeous_ , Emmett thought.

Her outstretched arms were ready for him.

"Emmett!" She took his face in her strong hands and looked him over. He smiled his dimpled-smile. He had missed those sharp, scrutinizing eyes of hers. And those full lips, red and warm and inviting. He leaned in at the same time she did, and neither wanted to let go. Emmett could kiss these lips for another hundred years and they would still electrify him.

"What happened?" she asked when they finally broke apart. "Alice was hardly helpful."

"Yeah, we were kind of in a rush to get Bella to the hospital, and I couldn't speak because the kid was covered in blood. Along with Carlisle and Edward. You should've seen them..."

"Carlisle called Esme with the story while you were on the plane. Did Edward..." She fidgeted, like she didn't want to sound too interested. "Did he really taste her blood?"

"I was too busy with the tracker at the time, but by the look of Edward after, he had definitely done it. Poor guy looked like he was in shock. But he should be proud. I'm amazed he could even breathe around all that spilled blood, let alone taste it. Let alone _drink_ it, and then _stop_." Emmett shook his head in awe. He always gave Edward flack about his seriousness and martyrdom, but he couldn't deny that he was impressed.

Rosalie distracted herself with tracing the planes of Emmett's biceps beneath his thin hoodie with her pinky. "What happened, then?"

Emmett told her the whole story, starting from when they separated at the clearing to Edward's theatrics and the plan Bella came up with, to their regroup at the house, to him, Carlisle, and Edward tracking James up north and how the vampire always took the coward's way out when they were finally catching up to him, and then to the tracker's escape by piloting his own plane - what was that about, and why had Emmett never considered learning to fly? Rosalie gently forced his thoughts back on track, and he continued, explaining the turmoil that welcomed them when they arrived in Arizona, and the subsequent car chase pandemonium, to barely making it in time to the dance studio where the tracker was tormenting Bella. He explained exactly what he had seen, the destruction around them, how frantic Edward had been, how Emmett had gotten ahold of James, and how a real fight never broke out since the tracker had basically given up once Jasper appeared, much to Emmett's chagrin and Rosalie's relief. Emmett finished with the details of their cover-up process, guided by Alice's expert foresight.

Emmett almost laughed. Now that the hard part was over, and everyone would be okay, he felt safe to realize that this was the most exciting thing that's happened to their family for a long time. He would never admit it to Rosalie or Edward or any of the others, and he wished it was under different circumstances, but, in hindsight, he kind of enjoyed the hunt.

Rosalie could not be fooled, though. She made a face at him, and Emmett tried to discern it. "What's on your mind, babe?"

She waited a moment before answering. " _Isabella_ _Swan_." Emmett heard the slight hiss intertwined in the irritation. "Taking matters into her own hands. She thought a group of us couldn't handle one vampire?"

"It is insulting," Emmett agreed, annoyed for his own reason. "But she was trying to help us. Our family, Rose. She sacrificed herself."

"What, does she want an award? It's her fault we were in danger in the first place."

"She was protecting us," Emmett countered hurriedly. "At least, she thought she was."

"Protecting us," Rosalie laughed. Was it only her who could hear the slight hysteria in her voice? "Alice trusted her, so much so that she never considered Bella was the one who was changing her visions, betraying all of us, basically wasting all our efforts and precautions from the beginning. And it was her who brought us to sunny Phoenix even knowing what that meant... How close to exposure were we during your Grand Theft Auto escapades, Emmett?" His pursed lips was answer enough for her, but there was something else in his face. Rosalie took a step back to see him better. She crossed her arms, hip jutted out.

"You like her," she accused.

Emmett shrugged. "She's a sweet kid. Good for Edward." He hesitated. "Rose, he's so in love with her. I know it's crazy. I know it's dangerous. But if our brother ends up with even a portion of what we have together," he took her hands, "I'd fight to give him that. He's always been the seventh wheel. Can't you give him this?"

It wasn't like Rosalie wanted Edward to suffer, to be alone. She simply never imagined it would happen like this. The moment Edward had saved Bella from that van in the school parking lot, Rosalie guessed Edward's feelings for the girl went beyond fascination. She realized before he was conscious of it himself. It was beyond odd. A plain, ordinary human girl being more attractive than her, Rosalie Hale?

But then, Edward had always been different. Strange.

Yet, he had promised her...

_"Nothing is going to happen tonight, Rose. She's not making any decisions. She's just going to watch us play a game, that's all. Think of it as an experiment."_

_In that...it might blow up?_

He had given her a tired look, but she had ended up agreeing, hadn't she? She tried, just as she promised. And it had indeed blown up. Nobody could hold her responsible for that. In fact, it baffled her how nobody else saw how utterly reprehensible this all was.

"Do you honestly believe this is the path to Edward's happiness?" Rosalie wondered.

"He thinks so..." Emmett answered honestly. "For the most part. When he's not brooding over what we are. So...we should protect her, too." He gave her a pointed look, challenging without outright provoking. Testing the depths of the waters.

Rosalie raised a perfectly sculpted brow at him. She didn't understand why she should put herself in danger for someone who was wreaking havoc on their lives. Bella Swan knew everything now, and yet she still stayed. It wasn't only Edward's choice anymore. The girl had made her own. Shouldn't she suffer the consequences?

"You know I would risk my life for our idiot brother," Rosalie answered. " _She,_ however, is a human girl. One who has no business being part of our world. She is nothing but a danger, and I protect my family."

"She is family, Rose."

Rosalie was already shaking her head. First Carlisle tried that bit with her, and now Emmett? What brainwashed nonsense was happening? Was this girl actually a witch?

" _Family_? She's been around a total of - what - a few months? What is that to an immortal? To a human? Nothing. She hardly knows any of us! How is she family, Emmett?"

Nothing could be said. Rosalie seethed, uncomprehending how Edward could risk all their lives for one human that he hasn't even known long, and how her family in its entirety seems all but willing to let it happen. Bella Swan was nothing but a teenage girl infatuated with Edward's supernatural attractiveness, and curious about their reclusive, mysterious family. Hell, she was bookworm - who was to say she didn't suddenly fancy herself the heroine of her own romantic horror tale, her Great Adventure dropped on her doorstep?

Edward should have known better, putting every one of them at risk of death without even talking to them about it. Making decisions that affected the family without consulting the family. The selfish jerk.

Bella Swan, for her part, had to be just as stupid as he was. How could she not see what she was risking? What she would have to do, or what she would have to become? What she would consequently have to give up? There was no reason for it, and Rosalie could only assume the girl was not as intelligent as she appeared.

But Rosalie had said it all before, and much to her frustration, nobody was listening.

What was the point anymore?

"Rose..." Emmett started gently when she had gone quiet, silently fuming.

"What do you want me to say?" she demanded. "I already told Edward I would try. Then look at what happened. His experiment failed. We were all put in danger - you, me, Carlisle, Esme! All of us! After all that, what does the girl do? She runs straight into the tracker's arms, on her own accord. She clearly isn't stable-minded enough to keep our secret or hang around our kind with reckless behavior like that, and you know it."

"She was trying to protect us," he said again.

"Did Bella really think the tracker was going to stop bothering us once she was dead? You said so yourself - he had it out for Edward. Edward was his target, and ultimately so was our family. Not to mention, did she think Edward wouldn't carry her blood around on his hands for the rest of eternity had she died? If Bella Swan was so smart, she would have stayed away from Edward from the very beginning."

"What if our roles were reversed, Rose?" Emmett responded, unnaturally quieter. "If _I_ was the human, and you were the vampire... Actually, we _have_ been there. And you gave me this life."

"You were dying."

"And what if I was the vampire, and you..." Emmett bit his tongue, coming to an abrupt halt. He didn't want to finish that question. Wished he hadn't started it. It was too late, though. The gold in Rosalie's eyes turned to steel. When she spoke, her growl was so low Emmett could hardly hear it.

"If _I_ was the human?" she hissed.

"Babe... I'm sorry. I spoke without thinking, but I didn't mean it like that. Please, just try to see it from their point of view. They met in the strangest circumstances. Maybe you would have been strong enough to ignore me, had I been human and not dying. But I know I wouldn't have been strong enough to ignore you if it was the other way around. I wouldn't have forced you to stay with me, but I damn well would have tried." He looked her hard in the eyes. "I'd take the risk - no question. And you know Edward - crazy as the kid is - thinks things through a hell of a lot more than I do. We have to trust him. Edward's always been supportive of us."

Rosalie thought back to the first moment in their history where she saw Edward as, not just a brother, but a friend. The night she had found Emmett. Carlisle had shooed her and Edward away from the blood, and through all her conflicting emotions, all her tumultuous anxieties, she had spent the night finding solace in none other than Edward.

She couldn't deny the things Edward has done for her in the past. Though they rarely agreed on things and were maybe too much alike for their own goods, there was never a doubt in Rosalie's mind that Edward would always be her brother.

_Until he brought an innocent human girl into their world._ Rosalie sighed. She could not forgive him for that. For putting them all at risk - of slipping, or of exposing themselves, or of the Volturi. All of it. It seemed as if nobody mattered to Edward anymore except Bella Swan. If that was the case, was he still her brother? Or had that girl changed him into a complete stranger?

If Edward was still the Edward she knew, despite all his flaws - and there were many - could she trust him enough to fix his mistakes? Could she trust that he was of sound mind, at least?

Rosalie remembered the day she brought Emmett home, bloodied, broken, and dying. She had seen something in his face. She didn't have a why, either. She had seen something in his face, and then she had _felt it_. Simple as that.

"It's going to take some time, Em." If it happens at all, she added silently. How could they just watch this girl throw away everything? They weren't even trying to make her understand, to make her see the choices she would be giving up.

Rosalie did not see how this could end in anything but sorrow. For the girl. For Edward, and, ultimately, the family.

Truth be told, Rosalie cared a great deal about her brother, for better or worse. And this was definitely worse.


End file.
